Jalandhar West bypoll to witness triangular contest

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, June 19

It’s going to be a triangular contest between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in the Jalandhar West bypoll. The Congress today fielded former Senior Deputy Mayor Surinder Kaur as its candidate for the bypoll.

The announcement by the party came when only two days are left to file nomination papers. BJP’s Sheetal Angural is set to file their papers tomorrow. The SAD is yet to announce its bypoll candidate even as the party today decided to add its Lok Sabha contestant Mohinder S Kaypee in its panel to finalise the name. Taking disciplinary action, the Congress also announced the expulsion of two of Kaypee’s loyalists from the party.

Feeling proud

Being a woman, I am proud to get the ticket. Though women represent 50 per cent of the population, there have been a few occasions when women have been fielded from Assembly segments in Jalandhar. —Surinder Kaur

Surinder Kaur, a five-time Municipal Corporation councillor, said: “Being a woman, I am proud to get the ticket. Though women represent 50 per cent of the population, there have been a few occasions when women have been fielded from Assembly segments in Jalandhar. Gurkanwal Kaur, former minister and daughter of former Chief Minister Beant Singh, was the last elected woman MLA from Jalandhar in 2002.”

Suman Kaypee, wife of former MP Mohinder S Kaypee, had contested from Jalandhar West as the woman contestant on the Congress ticket in 2012, but lost the elections.

Ahead of the announcement today, Congress MP Charanjit S Channi managed to placate almost 19 ticket aspirants. Last evening, he visited the houses of all ticket aspirants from Jalandhar West, pressing them not to stand as rebel or join any other party or even give support to any other candidate.

He visited the houses of former councillors Pawan Kumar, Onkar Tikka and leader Ashwani Jhangral among others. Other parties, including the BJP and the AAP, have been eyeing any dissidents of the Congress after the announcement of Surinder Kaur, over which Channi and his men have been keeping a strong vigil.

Though some party leaders, including Dr Raj Kumar Verka, had been pressing for getting MS Kaypee back into the Congress and getting him declared as the candidate, it was under pressure from candidates that the party chose to put off the matter.

BSP also to field candidate

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Wednesday announced that it would also field a candidate from the Jalandhar West reserved Assembly seat. The announcement was formally made by state president Jasvir Garhi, who flew to Lucknow on Wednesday morning to have a meeting with party supremo Mayawati in this regard. Garhi said the candidate would be announced by Thursday. The BSP is otherwise known not to participate in bypolls. The BSP’s participation can dent the Congress vote bank to an extent.

Kaur’s family into leather business

Hailing from Ravidassia community and engaged in leather work, Surinder Kaur has been pitted against AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat, who is from the Kabir Panthis community. BJP candidate Sheetal Angural is also a Ravidassia, but with Sialkot background. There are about 30,000 Bhagats in Jalandhar West and 35,000 Ravidassia voters. Nearly half of the voters here have Sialkot background, both from General and SC category. They are mostly engaged in manufacturing sports goods. Surinder Kaur’s husband Chaudhary Ram Asra too was a councillor in 1997, but passed away four years later. Her two sons — Karan Jallowal and Ketan Chaudhary — are engaged in the family’s leather business.